Method of ice manufacture



F. OPHULS.

METHOD OF ICE MANUFACTURE. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 28. 1914. RENEWED JUNE'IY, 1920. 370 221.

Patented Mar; 1, 1921,

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

F. OPHULS.

METHOD OF ICE MANUFACTURE. APPLICATION FILED SEPT-28,1914. RENEWED JUNE 17, 1920.

Patented Mar. 1, 1921.

7 2 $HEETSSHEET 2- PATENT OFFICE.-

rann OPHULS, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

METHOD or ICE manurac'ruan Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 1,1921.

Application filed September 28, 1914, Serial No. 863,805. Renewed June 17, 1920. Serial No. 389,775.

To all whom it my camera:

Be it known that I, FRED OPHULS, a citizen of the United States, residing at 323 Lenox road, borough of Brooklyn, city and State of New York, have invented the following-described Improvements in Methods of Ice Manufacture.

The invention provides means of manufacturing marketable ice from distilled or raw water, particularly the latter, with greater efficiency than heretofore. To th s end it involves the supercooling of the water below 32 F. under certain conditions, as hereinafter set forth.

According to existing methods, ice is produced by causing it to build up on one or more refrigerating surfaces entirely or mainly by the refrigerating effect of such surfaces. In these methods the disadvantage is present that the rate at .which the ice forms decreases rapidly, under a constant refrigerating intensity, as its thickness increases, for the heat to be extracted from the 'water to be frozen must pass through ice already deposited on the refrigerating surfaces, and this layer of ice,

on account of its poor heat conductivity, acts as an ever increasing resistance to the transfer of heat. The utilization of such methods, therefore, involves a temperature diflerence between the water not yet frozen and the refrigerating surface, which is, relatively high and correspondingly expensive to maintain. Notwithstanding that the water is forecooled, in some cases, to near the freezing point, the necessary temperature difference is still high. I have discovered that by supercooling the water to be frozen prior to its introduction to the place of refrigeration, the temperature difference may be very greatly reduced and maintainedlow during the whole process of freezing, with a coincident decrease in the time required for producing a cake of ice of commercial dimensions, and, further, that the total energy required for supercooling the water and cooling the refrigerating surface is less than would be otherwise required to produce the same result by any existing method. In actual practice of this new method, I have succeeded in producing clear marketable ice of commercial size with less total energy output than has heretofore been considered possible.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated, more or less diagrammatically, a form of apparatus that is suitable for carrying on the method, but it will be understood, and will be apparent from .this de-- scription, that the method is not dependent upon the particular form of apparatus-employed.

Figure 1 illustrates the principal elements and their connection, partly in section;

Flg. 2, a side or top view of the refrigerating surface Fig. 3, a section of the same on line IIIIII of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4, a section of the nozzle; and

Fig. 5, a modified form of apparatus.

In these drawings, the source of water to be frozen is represented by a tank 1, in which a constant water level is maintained by a ball float valve controlling the supplypipe 2, or otherwise. The tank is covered with a heat-insulating material, as indicated, and the water circulates through the same, passing out through a similarly insulated pipe 3, to the supercooler. The latter conslsts of a receptacle 4, cylindrical in the present case and surrounded by a jacket chamber 5 through which brine or ammonia, or other refrigerating medium or agent circulates. The pipes for the circulation of the refrigerant are indicated at 6, and may be assumed to be part of any suitable refrlgerating a paratus not necessary to be described. he interior of the supercooler is provided with a centrally located partition or draft-pipe 7, and a propeller on the end of the shaft 8 of an electric motor, revolves within this pipe creating r: rirculation of the water through and around the same and within the chamber 4. The latter is closed at top and bottom, preferably by dome-shaped end plates, as indicated, and the propeller shaft passes to the exterior through a packing gland in one end plate. The circulation of the water keeps it in commotion, ,while its heat is being abstracted by the surrounding refrigerating is made free of sharp interior projections, or

corners, all of the latter being carefully rounded and also polished. The nozzle itself is also smoothly polished on its interior and delivers a smooth-surfaced stream or jet of the supercooled water. These precautions provide against the premature formation of ice or ice crystals which, if one started, cause some of the water in the pipe as well as in the cooler, to flash instantaneously into ice or slush. By avoiding conditions which stimulate crystallization, the supercooling maybe safely carried well below 32 F., without danger of flashing. Each apparatus will be found, however, to have its own critical temperature at'which flashing occurs, and which must be first ascertained for best results. Althoughmade ,of the same material and operated under the same conditions, the critical temperature of different coolers will vary somewhat, but with proper attention to the considerations herein explained, they can be operated to cool the water below the freezing point without crystallization. The walls of the supercooler chamber may be made of rolled sheet-iron.

The refrigerating surface may be variously related to the nozzle and is desirably so located that the supercooled water will flow over it or over the ice-layer forming thereon in about the plane of the surface or layer itself, so that it will move smoothly thereover without splashing or spattering. Any means of applying the water to the surface without undue commotion is satisfactory. As the surface is necessarily of considerable extent as compared to the diameter of the nozzle, the latter iskept in a slow oscillating motion, in or adjacent to the said plane, so as to distribute the water over the whole surface. The mechanical appliance for imparting the oscillation is indicated in the drawing as comprising a pivoted frame 11, operated by a reciprocating rod 12, and carrying a ratchet wheel 13 and traverse screw 14. The nozzle 10 is mounted in a slideway at the end of the frame and connected to the screw 14, for which the ratchet wheel forms the nut, and a fixed pawl 15 serves as the operating means for rotating the wheel. On each reciprocation of the frame the wheel encounters the pawl, which turns it one tooth at a time, so that thereby the nozzle is advanced on each oscillation in the direction in which the ice is forming. The advance is slight and only sufficient to accommodate the increasing thickness of the ice layer, so that the supercooled water will continue to flow smoothly and evenly thereover.-

The refrigerating surface may also be formed in various ways. In the present case it consists of a jacketed metal wall 16 (Fig. 3) having a main wall or floor portion and two sides approximating the dimensions of a commercial ice cake, and the jacket 17 thereof is heat-insulated. Brine or a refrigerating agent may be circulated through the jacket and may be derived from the same refrigerating system that supplies the cooler.

The supercooled water flowing over the refrigerated surface forms immediately into ice and with a. minimum transfer of heat from the former to the latter, as the efl'ect of V the supercooling. The surplus water (at 32 F.) flows off the plate into a basin provided for the purpose, from which it is drawn through an insulated pipe 18, by a pump 19 and returned through an insulated pipe 20 to the supply tank 1. The returned water may contain more or less ice crystals suspended therein, and it is necessary to guard against the passage of the same to the supercooler.

They are therefore separated or collected in the supply tank, which is provided with a number of alternately arranged or staggered shelves or partitions 21, for the purpose. These produce suflicient stagnation of motion in the tank to permit the crystals to rise and float on the surface, while only pure water without crystals passes through the perforations and into the pipe 3, leading to the cooler. It is important that every crystal be excluded from the supercooler, inasmuch as the presence of a single crystal therein will flash the whole mass into a mixture of ice crystals and water and obstruct the production of clear ice accordingly.

I prefer to use ammonia as the refrigerant circulating directly through the jacket space 17, and to adjust the flow thereof to maintain a temperature of the refrigerating surface 16, of about 28. This is a considerably higher temperature than is ordinarily used in making ice, but is sufiicient in the new process by reason of the supercooling of the water which, being so near to the ice condition requires but a moderate freezing temperature to effect the change of state. As the ice is built up on the refrigeratingsurface mainly by the deposit obtained by the change of state of the supercooled water, it follows that the insulating qualities of the increasing layer of ice are of .relatively less effect and that the formation of ice may thus continue rapidly until the desired size of cake or plate is produced. The water consumed in the forfor supercooling the water, and in Fig. 5 I have illustrated an alternate form. Here the supply tank 1 is the same as already described and the clear water therefrom enters a brineor ammonia-jacketed coil, in which it is supercooled. This coil consists of several limbs or sections of pipe 22, connect-ed in series relation by long-radius elbows and surrounded by outer pipe sections 23, through which the brine or ammonia flows from a supply pipe 24, which is at the opposite end of the coil from the Water entrance. The course of the brine or ammonia, excludes the elbow connections, which are heavily protected by insulation. The construction will be plain from the figure. Within the water pipes a spiral partition 25, extending from end to end of each limb, serves to mix the water in passing and insures that all parts of it shall be homogeneously cooled without ice formation. The water supercooled in this form of cooler passes by discharge pipe 26 into a pocket 27 adjacent one end of the refrigerating surface 16 and accumulating therein flows over the said surface becoming converted into ice under the economic conditions already explained. It will be noted that the pocket 27 avoids the necessity of a traversing and oscillating discharge nozzle, the refrigerating surface in this case being horizontal, in a transverse sense. The surplus water therefrom flows into a catch basin as before, from which it is returned to the supply tank, completing the water circulation.

In both forms of supercooler the critical point at Which flashing is likely to occur, is first determined by experiment, and thereafter the operation of the refrigerating apparatus of such cooler is set or adjusted, other conditions remaining constant, to keep the water just above such point and less than the normal freezing point, and so long as the apparatus is designed for constantly bringing fresh portions of water against the refrigerating Wallof the cooler, the flash point may be kept at the desired low point. It is to be understood that the apparatus is provided with the necessary adjustment and shut-off devices where needed. v From the foregoing it will be observed that the principle of the invention may be utilized in apparatus of Widely different character, and I wish to emphasize that there is no intention of limiting this patent to any particular form of apparatus or arrangement thereof except as defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. The method of manufacturing ice Which consists in cooling water below 32 F. without freezing and passing it at that temperature over a refrigerated surface to form a layer of ice thereon.

2. The method of manufacturing ice which consists in agitating Water within a refrigerated space or chamber and cooling it therein below 32 F discharging such supercooled water upon a refrigerated surface to form an ice layer thereon and returning the excess water to the said space or chamber.

3. The method of manufacturing ice, which consists in cooling water to less than 32 F;, flowing the same over a refrigerated surface maintained at less than 32 F., to form an ice layer thereon, collecting the excess water and cooling it to below 32 F. and flowing the same over the said ice layer.

4. The method of manufacturing ice which consists in cooling water to below 32 F. without freezing, delivering the supercooled water in contact with an ice support and with the ice layer which forms thereon, and causing the layer to grow to the desired thickness by continuing said delivery while permitting only a slight quantity of Water to be-in contact with the ice.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

FRED OPHULS. Witnesses:

HARRY PRAEGER, K. L. GRANT. 

